Wake Up, Bitches. It’s JW Anderson SS25

SUNDAY 11:45 AM SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 LONDON

Yesterday, our senior editor Taylore Scarabelli landed in London town and headed straight to a newly revived riverside market building to witness the JW Anderson SS25 show. Afterward, she met up with our fashion correspondent Lyas, who had a few thoughts on party girls, trompe l’oeil, and upskirt images. 

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TAYLORE SCARABELLI: At the beginning of the show, when the crazy Challengers-type beat dropped and the lights went on, everyone jumped out of their seats. I was sitting across from Lena Dunham and Mackenzie Davis. That was a good way to start.

LYAS: In the morning at 11:00 AM. It’s insane, I love it.

SCARABELLI: It was like, “Wake up, bitches. It’s Sunday, let’s go.”

LYAS: It was my coffee shot.

SCARABELLI: The show was very that too. All the girls were really natural, like they just rolled out of bed wearing these little mini shift dresses with a flat shoe. I was like “Oh, this is very Indie sleaze. This is very 2008.”

LYAS: Also, the shoe. Did you see that it was open in the back so you can just put it on in a rush.

SCARABELLI: It’s a very morning-after vibe.

LYAS: I love. And the music was still playing when you just woke up. Your hand is still, [fist pumps] “Boom, boom, boom.”

SCARABELLI: You passed out at the party. 

LYAS: A lot of trompe l’oeil as well. I don’t know what that was about.

SCARABELLI: The vest, very American Apparel.

LYAS: Even the strings of the hoodies that were on the dresses.

SCARABELLI: Yeah, it’s easy to get sick of illusion looks right now. There’s a lot, especially with all the Gaultier revivals, but I thought that was quite nice.

LYAS: Yeah, and when a lot of people tried to do Jonathan Anderson, I think he went back to something more subtle and less gimmicky.

SCARABELLI: Listen, Jonathan Anderson’s the king of meme fashion. He started that whole thing, and this did feel like a lot more pared back, but also a lot of the tropes that he does—the heavy weave dress, and the big beautifully shaped knits in muted, almost ugly colorways—were present.

LYAS: The men’s was amazing, and the women’s I think was a way to go back to his original mindset without doing too much, which a lot of people do in fashion these days.

SCARABELLI: Yeah. Oh, also the other trompe l’oeil, which I can never say properly.

LYAS: [Slowly] trompe l’oeil. 

SCARABELLI: Tromp-loy? With the crochet. It was a dress, but it looked like it was a crochet doily, which was kind of continuing last season’s granny references. How did you feel about the leather skirts?

LYAS: So beautiful. It felt like it was gravitating, like defying gravity. I tried filming them and I always ended up filming underneath the skirt, so I was like “Okay, I cannot post that. I don’t want to be seen as a pervert.”

SCARABELLI: [Laughs] And then the final look, which was another tiny shift dress with a little more shape to it and had some text on it.

LYAS: Yeah, I saw Mesopotamia, I think. That’s the only word I could catch.

SCARABELLI: It was a little essay. I saw something like, “At the risk of becoming a bore…” I was like, is this for the Substack girls with their shitty writing? [Laughs] I also haven’t even read any show notes yet, so this is just us going purely off vibes.

LYAS: Of course. Wait, I’m looking at my video. [Reads aloud] Revise a few of our social political theories. Be that as much is show— I think it’s about civilization.

SCARABELLI: Oh, it’s deep.

LYAS: It’s very deep. That music brought a light touch to it. I was bumping my head the whole show.

SCARABELLI: Yeah, it felt really tight, really clean. It was my first JW Anderson show and I enjoyed myself. I’m on no sleep and now I’m ready for the club. [Laughs]